St. Nicholas is a parish of the Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America, in the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America. His Eminence, Metropolitan SABA is the Archbishop of New York and Metropolitan of the Antiochian Archdiocese, as well as being a member of the Holy Synod of the Antiochian Patriarchate.

Fr Daniel Bethancourt was born in Mesa, Arizona, and moved with his family to Virginia, Nevada, and New Mexico, ending up in Santa Fe by 8th grade. He became Orthodox with his family his senior year of high school. He graduated from St. John's College in Santa Fe in 2002, with a B.A. in Liberal Arts. He spent two more years in Santa Fe, working at a residential and mental health treatment facility, participating in the construction of Holy Trinity Orthodox Church, and assisting his father, who was the pastor at Holy Trinity. In 2004 he began studies at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in New York, graduating with a Masters of Divinity in 2007. 

In the meantime, he met and courted Presvytera Maria. They were married in July of 2007, after which they returned to St. Vladimir’s for another year, during which Fr. Daniel worked as director of recruitment at the seminary and Presv. Maria finished her M.A. degree. During the four years he spent at St. Vladimir’s, Fr. Daniel was also assigned to St. Anthony in Bergenfield, New Jersey, where he taught Sunday School, chanted and led the Teen SOYO.

Fr. Daniel was ordained to the Holy Priesthood on June 8, 2008. Later that month the Bethancourts moved to Shreveport, where Fr. Daniel began serving as pastor of St. Nicholas in July. Their son, Peter, was born that August, and their daughter, Joanna, was born four years later. They have now called Shreveport, and St. Nicholas, home for over 17 years. 

Email Fr. Daniel